Monday, February 28, 2011

brighten up my day

It's been gross and rainy here most of the day and these string rainbows cheered me up. Aren't they amazing?


Sunday, February 27, 2011

ab-fab pre-fab

Photographer Jeffrey Milstein shows us around these amazing post WWII trailer parks in Palm Springs. That's right, I said trailer parks. Look closely. Over the years, the owners transformed ordinary trailers into one of a kind bits of mid-century modern fabulousness. How cool is that?

(And side note: I cannot wait until we get to decorate this house for Christmas. It will look so amazing with those icicle lights. Yay!)

Saturday, February 26, 2011

cheap date

 

The mister and I went out for a fancy dinner of chili dogs and fries last night, and I indulged in a typical act of bloggery. Photograph, eat, photograph. It's a perfectly normal thing to do. 
It was my first time at the Vienna Inn, and I was surprised and delighted that such a place exists in NoVa. I should have taken some pictures of the place itself, but I somehow didn't think about it and anyway it would have made us look like tourists in what clearly is mainly a place for regulars. It felt like it would be nestled in the mountains of West Virginia or something. And their chili dogs are fantastic. I hear they serve other things too, but why bother?

Friday, February 25, 2011

Good Day

Chris reminded me of these guys and I just had to share. Their music makes me so happy, and makes me want to drive around with the windows down and sit in the grass without shoes on. The weather is not quite ready for these activities, but I can get ready for them in my mind, right?

One of my personal favorites.
 
Best part is they're based in Philadelphia so they come to DC all the time. Like April 23 at Black Cat. You should go.

From their recent album.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

sneak peek

My new bedroom (you've been asking for pics, right?)


PS: I posted in the wedding blog yesterday. Check it out!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

pinterest

I have finally started my Pinterest boards! If you don't read 500 blogs like I do and you have not been introduced to Pinterest yet, let me tell you about it. It's a place to save and organize your inspiration from around the web. It's similar to Image Spark, which I have mentioned on this blog before, but oh so much better. Sure sure, I have gotten a lot of use out of Image Spark, and I can appreciate its ease of use. All I had to do was right click an image and click save to Image Spark. It automatically stored where I found the image, and then I could tag the photo if I wanted. Moodboard possibilities were there, but limited. It worked for me. Until... Here's the thing. They don't really care what kind of images are stored there. As long as it can be considered artistic and inspirational, you can save it there. And it can show up when you search the site. As any half aware person who has been on the internet can guess, that means it was taken over by nudity pretty quickly. Kind of annoying.

Then one day I started hearing people talking about something called Pinterest. It happened pretty quickly, actually, and I was seeing it all over the place. And I put off looking into it because once I've settled into something and accepted its faults, it's pretty easy to just stick with it. It's within my comfort zone. It works, for the most part. And it doesn't take up any of my time. But finally last week (I'm not even sure what spurred it on) I put myself on the waiting list to get a Pinterest account. 

At first inspection, it seemed to be pretty redundant. Lots of multiples show up because several people re-pin the same image. Fine. Then I found out that the main means of pinning images is through a button on my menu bar, and I was a little bit baffled. I like the right click option. I'm used to the right click option. It makes sense to me. I don't know if I'm going to like this. I wasn't even sure how it was going to work, how it would save the correct image if there were several images on the screen when I clicked the button? Well wouldn't you know it, they thought of that. It's actually a clean, simple user interface and it works quite well. And suddenly I have found myself in an easy to navigate world of folders and tags and more easily accessible inspiration. And it incorporates a little social networking so you can see what your friends are loving on the internet. 

Great. 
Sounds good.
I am sold.

Now I have the daunting task of moving my images from Image Spark over to Pinterest. Organizing them. Tagging them. But being a little bit more careful about what I'm saving over there, so as to not give away any wedding surprises.

So I guess it would be a little bit silly to write this whole post about saving pictures and not post any, right? Here's some great detail shots I found while coming up with ideas and a shot list for my wedding photographer.


Monday, February 21, 2011

sweet party

Kind of obsessed with this super cute breakfast party over at The Sweetest Occasion. Every little detail is just perfect.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

bright lights


greedy girls aren't the only ones captivated by these bold, bright pants from zara. I think I would go with orange...

Friday, February 18, 2011

ok, I'm curious



Fisheye, macro, and wide angle lenses for your cell phone? Yeah, I'm curious. Only $40 for the set...

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

luckyduct


Crazy in love with these pieces from Rachel Pfeffer Designs. (username luckyduct on etsy, in case you were wondering)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

I'll take one of each

Along with the sunny, warm weather in which to wear them.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Heart Attack!

These hearts of mine

My dear friend Jessica reminded me today of many glorious (if slightly destructive) Valentine's Days we shared in high school. It was something we called the Heart Attack, in which we would cut out hundreds of paper hearts, write "heart attack" all over them, and sprinkle them generously all over our lucky friends' lawns. We would then leave a little note and a bag of candy on their porch and leave them to have to explain to their parents just what the mess was all about. One year two of the recipients gathered up their hearts and brought them to sprinkle around MY yard. I still loved it.

It should be noted that I got this idea from my older sister (thank you!) who did pretty much the same thing years before me, and created another brilliant iteration this year in her own home.


She left little quotes and notes all over her house for her family to discover in the morning. I just love it. So sweet (and easy and cheap and meaningful!). You can see more on her blog.

And I'm not much for public displays of affection but to my mister, I offer you this.
 

And I love you.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Hmmm

I would not turn up my nose if these showed up on my plate tomorrow morning.


Little fried hearts of deliciousness would really get the day started right. With some strawberries. And mimosas. And a day off...
But alas.

Friday, February 11, 2011

art installation


LOVE this idea (it's made out of cardboard tubes!) and kind of want to do this at home!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

the task at hand

We officially announced our wedding date yesterday (June 5, 2011) so the wedding planning is in full swing. My brain is swirling with invitation design and wording, decorations, the Great Photographer Search of 2011 (I knew it was going to be hard. I did not think it would be this hard), dresses, rings, food, marriage licenses... I need to stop myself now, because WHOA. That is a lot. I need to make some good, comprehensive, organized lists before this stuff gets out of hand.


But here's one thing I've decided I really want: a custom poster-style marriage certificate that guests can sign. The idea came from (who else) Rifle Paper Co., but they are not currently accepting new commissions. So. Have you seen anything similar done? Know anyone up to the task? I'm taking recommendations.


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Happy Birthday!

My little blog is one year old today, can you believe it? 345 posts (so I didn't quite make my once a day goal, but that is pretty darned close). Here's to another year of pretty things, happiness, and inspiration. 

It's also a good time, I think, to reflect on what the blog has been through in the past year. What have you enjoyed the most? What do you think I should just leave out? And what would you like to see more of? I want to hear from you!

Monday, February 7, 2011

the floor my dreams are made of


I kind of have a little obsession with painted wood floors, but I have never seen one as darling as this painted stripe floor! I love that there are stripes of exposed wood thrown in there too.
Found over at You Are My Fave

Sunday, February 6, 2011

day date

Yesterday the mister and I opted out of Superbowl festivities and ventured downtown to visit the Newseum instead. We were mostly correct in assuming that everyone would be at home getting ready for the game so the streets would be clear and we even scored great street parking! (I was a bit baffled by the fact that there was a hockey game going on, but it didn't get in the way of our taking on the town too much.

But I'll get on with the photos.


The building was neat but also quite strange. There was a lot of open space and there was no clear path through the museum. I'm pretty sure we saw everything, but since several exhibits were tucked away in corners and on half levels, it's kind of hard to say.

But we did see some sections of the Berlin Wall and a watch tower.

 
 
And some Elvis memorabilia (we had no idea this was even there, so it was a total bonus for the mister.) Fascinating the things that people hang on to, btw. Lots of receipts and Western Union transfers in addition, of course, to his outfits and guitars and records.

 
 

And, of course, a large collection of memorable front pages from newspapers worldwide. I find the first one particularly interesting given that 3/4 of the thing is a really terrible advertisement that breaks every rule I have ever learned about text and layout design. But it's so great.

 

 

And lastly, some fun old stuff! Radios, TVs, typewriters, video cameras. And a song called "She's Good Enough to be Your Baby's Mother And She's Good Enough to Vote With You"
Yeah, for real.